Lackey
by misc666
Summary: Hoshigaki Kisame is always being called a lackey. While waiting for his "parnter" he finds himself having to show a pair of old "friends" how wrong they are about him.


                                    Lackey

                                                By Misc666

Disclaimer: This story contains spoilers for the Naruto manga up to Chapter 139. I do not own Naruto, including the characters Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Itachi. I do own Kensaki and Choutou though.

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A man sat by the side of a road with a wooden hat with white cloth coming down the back pulled low down over his face. Pale skin could just be seen surrounding a vicious grin. His body was nearly all covered by a black cloak with red smoke designs. Beside him rested a long sword with the blade wrapped up.

"Damn Itachi, making me wait. Hoshigaki Kisame shouldn't have to wait for a seventeen year old boy. Especially one so obviously below my level of skill." Kisame raised his head to reveal his face to be shark-like, complete with gills.

"Well Kisame. Seems he's going to be the one waiting for you. Shame you're going to be dead." Kisame slowly raised his head as a grin spread across his face. The two were dressed as jounins of the Hidden Mist village. But the swords on their back showed them to be far more than just elite ninjas from the village.

"Choutou and Kensaki. I haven't seen the two of you since I left the village. I assume you are after me?" Kisame smirked as the one on the left, Kensaki, began to reach for the large, both in length and width, and flat sword on his back. The other reached over and held him still.

"You betrayed the Seven Swordsmen. You used the search for Zabuza to fulfil your own plans and betrayed our village, and our country." Kisame noticed the difference between the pair as the zanbatou-wielding Kensaki seemed too anxious to fight whereas Choutou, a wielder of a long, thin blade, was much calmer and composed about it.

"The village has searched for you for these past years. And how glad I am that I was the one to find you, although I am surprised at the situation." Kensaki took his turn in looking smug as Kisame raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"What situation do you mean? And be careful about what you say, I plan on killing you whatever happens but choose your words carefully and maybe you'll last a little while longer." Kisame growled as he said this as Choutou looked disapprovingly at Kensaki.

"The great Hoshigaki Kisame. An ex-member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist. Strength said to even rival that of the Hidden Leaf's genius jounin, Copy Ninja Sharingan Kakashi. The man who did what Momochi Zabuza couldn't do and killed the Mizukage. And yet now. You are an errand boy, a lackey. We've heard stories of how you answer to a seventeen year old boy. You're a disgrace to the name of the Seven Swordsmen." Kensaki looked smug as he finished and crossed his arms.

"Hmm… did you call me a lackey? I hate… being… called… a… lackey." The pupils of Kisame's eyes shrunk as his eyes narrowed in anger. Reaching back he pulled on the handle of his sword spinning it around in an arc. The cloth fell away to reveal a blade with jagged edges along the blade. A pun on his name it was made of rough shark skin.

"Ironic then, isn't it? You are a lackey. At least for a little while longer." Despite Choutou's attempts at stopping him it was Kensaki who made the first move swinging around the heaviest of the three swords as if it were a feather.

"You shouldn't have said that. Your time has run out." Kisame suddenly moved faster than the eye could see to appear behind Kensaki whose momentum still kept him going. Kisame brought the blade down from above splitting Kensaki clearing down the middle.

Only for the man to collapse in on himself and turn out to be made of water.

"Kisame, I had thought you knew better. The Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu is a move all our clan uses. You should have known we'd been using it." Kisame felt the tip of Choutou's long blade press against the side of his throat. Behind him Kensaki dropped out of a nearby tree as the real Choutou also appeared watching his clone's actions.

"What do you expect Choutou? He's just a simple-minded lackey." Kensaki burst out laughing at this roaring as if it were the funniest thing he'd ever heard. Choutou however didn't find this joke too funny.

"Kensaki, quiet. Now this is for your own good Kisame. You've became weak over the past years. This is mercy." Choutou and his Water Clone both smirked as the clone raised his weapon. Suddenly the clone collapsed in on itself.

"Mizu Bunshin. The most notorious of our village's techniques. Seems like I'm not the only person who underestimated his opponent in this fight." Kisame smirked himself as he withdrew the jagged sword from Choutou's back. The blood staining it showed that this wasn't a clone.

"You killed him." Spinning round Kensaki stared daggers at Kisame who grinned showing all his teeth off to their fullest.

"This is no longer about the Village, I assume." Kisame reached up and removed the forehead protector he wore, on it the symbol of the Hidden Mist had a line cut through it. With a sigh he dropped it to the ground. Across from him Kensaki removed his, although this one didn't have a line through the symbol.

"This is about honour. I heard that Zabuza was killed a few months ago. Seems that of the Seven Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist there will only be one by the end of this day. Will I return to the village as the hero or will the last of us be a villain sought throughout the lands, a lackey." Kensaki dropped back into a ready position with his blade lying behind him.

"I told you. I am not a lackey. But I will be the last of the Seven." Roaring with rage both brought round their swords resulting in a blinding crash of sparks as they collided. Both stared each other down as they did this waiting for the other to tire.

"You will die and I will…" Kensaki was cut off as his throat was suddenly cut with a kunai from behind. Kisame growled as he saw who'd done it.

"Itachi he was mine to kill. He was my business. This wasn't anything to do with you." The teen who was once the heir to the Uchiha clan stared back with the eyes of the Sharingan before shrugging and turning away.

"I have no time to wait for you. We must go to the Leaf now." Itachi wiped the blood of his kunai before it disappeared someone in the cloak he wore.

"Damn you Uchiha. Why do you do this to me?" Itachi refused to answer as he looked off in the direction of his old village. The place where his brother lived, and where his family had found their end. At his hands.

"Because I am far more powerful than you. Because they are right. Because you are no longer a proud jounin of the Hidden Mist village. You do what I want." Itachi stated this all as if it was plain common sense. Kisame didn't growl this time as he turned around.

But as he wrapped his sword up again he allowed himself to smile with his toothy grin. After all, Uchiha Itachi was just a mere boy compared to him. And time would tell on who out of them was the lackey.

Hoshigaki Kisame was nobody's lackey.


End file.
